With the advent of a new global village, Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists now live next door to Christians and Jews. With the advent of the internet, a Chinese born seeker can read the New Testament while a seeker from Oklahoma can read the Tao Te Ching. Now American children not only read about Islam but sit next to young girls in burkas at grammar school.
The dissemination of world wisdom texts and intermingling of cultures and religions has made it possible for people to follow spiritual and religious paths which deeply suit their inner nature. The growing holistic understanding that God is One, the root of all people and all paths, gives us now the added opportunity to worship that One Spirit in mosques, churches, synagogues, temples, sweat lodges, nature groves, on land, sea and air with our brothers and sisters—organized or unorganized.
The knowledge that religion—connection to spirit—is possible in all these organized structures as well as with no structure is a message of the ‘Spirit of this Age’ which is helping us all to give up our comparisons, judgments, prejudices and fears. This is sorely needed if we are to harness the incredible power and passion of religion and spirituality for solving problems through Unity rather than exacerbating problems through Divisiveness.
‘Religious’ people mistrust mystics and ‘spiritual’ people. Spiritual people mistrust religious people and organized religion. Yet all of us are in the same ship—the ship called earth which is sailing through our solar system, which is encircling our Milky Way Galaxy, just one small galaxy orbiting with billions of others galaxies in the Universe. The Great Spirit/Great Mystery is so much greater than our petty comparisons and fears about who is right and which way is wrong. The Great Spirit is breathing in and out universes while we fight over ‘organized versus unorganized’ religion. The zeitgeist (or spirit of the age) is a sweeping force that is driving us to transform our attitudes, to go beyond thinking in terms of us vs. them and to embrace the way of love and compassion taught in all sacred paths.
The winds of change blow strongly and rapidly when the doors of wisdom are open to all. Wonderfully, in our times there is a fresh breeze of reconciliation beginning to blow. Yet, we must choose to align ourselves with that wind, raise our sails, and trust enough to go where that wind of healing and peace are taking us. A reconciliation of opposites is the key, and it is just as possible right now in our times as it ever has been or ever will be. We make it probable when we adjust way of thinking and feeling and take on an attitude of gratitude. We make it probable when we look with empathy at someone else’s view point and perspectives, seeing ourselves walk a mile in their shoes. A reconciliation of opposites will bring peace amongst all people…religious, spiritual, and non-spiritual. Behind the names and forms of all religions and spiritual paths is One Power, One Peace and One All Encompassing Love.